Wildlife Recording

We have the opportunity to get involved in 'citizen science' by recording the wildlife we see in our gardens and sending in records to be added to the offical county records. These records then give the scientists a clearer understanding of trends and help shape conservation actions.

Usually, wildlife records are collected through county recorders. I understand that the Blackfordby area is partly in Leicestershire and partly in Derbyshire. However, this is from an 'Administrative County' point of view. Wildlife recording is done by what are known as 'Vice-counties'. These were set up in 1852 and largely follow the county boundaries at that time. Administrative County boundaries change for various reasons including watercourse movements and new road building , and so were deemed to be inapropriate for wildlife recording where consistency is required, Vice-counties are immovable areas and now do not necessarily conform to Administrative County boundaries. One of the largest areas of deviation is in the Blackfordby area, where the Vice-county of Leicestershire and Rutland, designated VC55, extends well into the Administrative County of Derbyshire. VC57 being the designation of the Vice-county of Derbyshire.

If you wish to check what Vice-county any particular location is in, if you have a means of checking your co-ordinates or National Grid Reference, through apps on a phone or via a map, you can go to the following web site and enter that location's details - it will then give you the Vice-county reference. You can find the site here:- http://herbariaunited.org/gridrefVC/ . You should see something that looks like this:-

If you are in VC55, I recommend that you submit your records through Naturespot, or direct to the relevant County Recorder.

If you wish to submit through Naturespot, I recommend you get yourself set up by visiting this page of their website :-  https://www.naturespot.org.uk/content/become-nature-recorder

If you wish to send records direct the the relevant County Recorder, you can find a list on the Naturespot website here :-  https://www.naturespot.org.uk/node/158069

If you are unsure of the identification of what you have seen, you can go directly to Naturespot who have some great ID resources.

If you are in VC57, it seems that your best route to submitting records is through the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust website. You can find their recording facility here :-  https://www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/record-sighting

If you have any queries on this, remember, we are here to help.

Happy recording

Richard Pegler